Washing Haas, Janet P. And

¶ … Washing Haas, Janet P. And Larson, Elaine L. "Compliance with Hand Hygiene Guidelines: Where are we in 2008?" American Journal of Nursing. 108(8): 40-44, August 2008. The Primary Purpose and Value of the Article According to the available information, hospital-acquired or nosocomial infections are a tremendous problem in contemporary American healthcare. There are approximately 1.7 million cases of nosocomial infections in U.S.

hospitals every year; they account for 100,000 deaths annually as well as billions of healthcare dollars wasted on treating patients for infections acquired in hospitals that are totally unrelated to their original reason for hospitalization. To a large extent, the high rate of hospital acquired infections in U.S. hospitals is caused by the failure of medical personnel (including nurses and doctors) to follow common sense rules of antisepsis that all medical providers have learned since the Germ Theory of Disease was first discovered a century and a half ago.

The principal value of the article is that it will increase awareness of the need to implement and enforce much stricter protocols and standards for healthcare workers in the area of hand washing. Institutions can use this information to develop rules for hand washing and healthcare workers can use this information to make sure that they do not accidentally harm patients by transmitting harmful bacteria to them by failing to wash their hands often enough.

The situation is so serious that CMS suspended hospital reimbursements for certain kinds of infections (such as those caused by urinary catheters) in 2007 partly to motivate better compliance with hygienic principles. Clinical Relevance of the Article The clinical relevance of the article is that it is a fundamental problem that so many patients contract preventable nosocomial infections in American hospitals. Naturally, any problem that results in 1.7 instances of illness and 100,000 preventable deaths is automatically extremely clinically significant.

What makes this topic especially clinically significant is that nosocomial infections are largely a function of behaviors that violate established principles of standard hygiene and antisepsis in clinical settings. If the information can be used to publicize the importance of reducing hospital acquired infections and to increase healthcare worker compliance with antiseptic protocols, it could greatly improve the safety and quality of the American healthcare system. Primary Barriers to Hand Washing Compliance The main barriers reported in connection with the low rate of hand washing compliance in U.S.

hospitals include ignorance, laziness, habit, and convenience. Ignorance comes into play when healthcare providers fail to consider how vulnerable hospitalized patients are to.